Knight, Alford to be reunited at Fifth Third
12/26/12 at 4:34pm by
bkoch
Bob Knight will do the color commentary for the UC-New Mexico game Thursday night on ESPN2. It will be the first time New Mexico coach Steve Alford, who played for Knight at Indiana, has ever coached a game that his former coach called on TV.
But UC coach Mick Cronin said he’s not worried that the commentary will be slanted toward the Lobos. He’s just happy to have the Hall of Fame coach in the house.
“Knight has always been good to me, which I really appreciate,” Cronin said. “Bob Knight was who my dad patterned his offense and a lot of his coaching philosophy after. The fact that he even knows who I am is great. I love every chance I get to talk to him about basketball.”
Knight and Alford teamed up to win the national championship in 1987. Their path to the Final Four went through Cincinnati where the Hoosiers won the Midwest Region at Riverfront Coliseum.
Cronin said the Lobos play much the same way that Alford played at IU.
“Nobody moved without the ball better than him,” Cronin said. “He’s an extremely cerebral guy and his team really emulates him on offense, playing smart, getting to the foul line, good shot selection, a lot of what he learned from Coach Knight.”
This will be the premier non-conference home game on UC’s schedule and it’s one that Cronin is happy to have.
“You’re hunting around for teams that are like you, that are Top 25 teams that struggle to get non-conference home-and-home games,” Cronin said. “We don’t get invited to the Jimmy V and all these games in the Barclay Center and the Garden like some other teams do, maybe becaue of their name or whatever, so we’ve got to hunt and New Mexico is a similar team like us. They’re not on everybody’s speed dial but they’re a quality team obviously.”
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Knight, Alford to be reunited at Fifth Third
